Suicide and Keg Stands - Chapter 10

"Sure. Let me get my stuff together."

"Cool. If we get there early, we can probably get a study room."

"A what?"

"A study room. It's like a private room for just a few people. Then you're not stuck with everyone else. I spent like all weekend in one, I got a lot done."

"You spent all weekend at the library?"

"I gotta get all A's this quarter. I want to get into an honors section next year."

"What are you doing for Christmas?" he asked as we walked across campus.

"Going home for a couple of weeks. My dad is going to be off for a while, then I guess I'll come back here. You?"

"We're going skiing in Jackson Hole. My dad is a huge skier and every year my whole family goes up there. It's sort of a reunion I guess."

"Not bad."

"Yeah. It will be nice to have a vacation."

"Let's go somewhere for break," Sarah said. We were standing outside the library. It was about midnight. Sarah had found us a few minutes before.

"Aren't you going home?"

"My mom and grandma are taking a cruise. I don't think my dad is doing anything. He'll probably work on Christmas. Their therapist said they should spend some time apart."

"Really?"

"Spending time together wasn't working."

"Oh."

"They've spent the last week trying to buy me off. My mom offered to take me on the cruise and my dad wants to send me to his parents."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Take a trip with you."

I flew home the week before Christmas, as soon as finals were over. My dad had the weeks before and after Christmas off. We slept in late and when we were both up we made pancakes or waffles or French toast for breakfast. He laughed when I asked him to make enough coffee for both of us that first day I was home.

"When did you start drinking coffee?" he asked.

"I don't know, during midterms maybe?"

I didn't realize it, but he was something of a coffee snob, and his was much better than anything I'd had at school. He showed me how he roasted his own beans and ground them every morning.

"You never used to do this when I lived here," I said

"Without you here sucking up all my time, I've picked up a few hobbies," he said with a grin. Then he got excited and made me put on shoes and follow him out to the garage. Despite the snow on the ground, his truck was parked outside, and when he opened the garage door I could see why. There were parts and tools everywhere.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's an airplane. Or it will be once I'm finished."

"An airplane? You don't know how to fly."

"I'm taking lessons," he said with a hint of pride. "I'm going to get my pilot's license, and I'm going to build my own plane. I figured we could work on it together while you were here." I couldn't do much but stare at him. Besides his work, he'd never spent all that much time building things. As he showed me the blueprints for the kit though, I began to think it was pretty cool. After breakfast each day we'd go out to the garage and turn on the space heaters and hang out all afternoon, working and listening to the radio.

He'd picked up a Christmas tree like he did every year, and each night we'd pull out a box of ornaments and decorate it. Since my mom had died we'd always spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my uncle and cousins, but my dad still liked to put up a tree, especially since we weren't going to be there. He'd been saying for years that it was the small things that made a house a home. And it was always better to come home the day after Christmas to a tree. It made the house feel less empty.

After we got back from my uncle's house we spent the day making a turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and whatever else we could find at the supermarket that looked good. I hadn't come home for Thanksgiving and he wanted to make me a Thanksgiving dinner. It was more for him though, he loved making the bird and everything that went along with it. The rest of the year he couldn't be bothered to cook, but we'd always done a big Thanksgiving when my mom had been alive. She'd invite her sisters and their families and her parents. It was the one time of year she liked to show off for her family. A big Thanksgiving was a tradition he'd kept alive all these years, even when it was just the two of us. After we ate we were sitting in the living room watching TV.

"You can stay longer if you want," he said.

"It's alright. You're going to go back to work after New Year's, and there's not going to be much for me to do around here."

"You haven't called anyone from high school, have you?"

"Nah. People have break at different times, and they're pretty busy with their family this week," I said. He gave me a look like he didn't believe me.